How To Train Your Dog
Obedience dog training is very much a family pursuit. After all, if any member of the family gets bitten it involves the whole family. And what’s the use of a dog that walks politely at the side of its master, sitting at every road they come to, but drags a child straight into the traffic? Every member of your family should be able to use the commands that your dog has learned.
Similarly, you must teach your children not to give food to the dog while they are eating. Better still make the rule that the dog is banned from the eating area while you are eating. The top dog always eats first, and the rest of the pack eats after him. So it is dangerous to give food to your dog during or before your meal. He will think he is top dog.
Quite apart from being dragged into the traffic, your children will get bitten if they try to interfere in a dog fight. So you should consider it essential to train your dog not to fight, and train your kids what orders to give to prevent a fight.
Daniel Stevens has written a book full of expert techniques that explains why your dog wants to make your life a misery - or does it?
He says - You’re probably making critical mistakes in your dog’s obedience training and don’t even know it! Did you know that your dog may not know why you are trying to correct him? Learn how to make him understand.
That’s right - your dog isn’t trying to make your life a misery. He just doesn’t understand what you want.
- Do your children bring home stray dogs?
- Read the real life experiences of people who offered good homes to dogs without realizing that the previous owners had given up on trying to cure the bad behaviour of their pets. Read how easy it was for them to fix the problems once they knew a few expert techniques.
- Read how Carla came to regret her generosity in rescuing two German Shepherds because they were uncontrollable. Then she learned to understand the way the dogs were thinking. Now you wouldn’t recognize them as the same dogs.
- Do you need to stop your dog from trying to fight with other dogs? Learn the best ways to break up dog fights and prevent them from ever happening again.(page 84-86)
- For instance, does your dog bark too much annoying the neighbours, or too little at intruders? Apply advanced techniques so that your dog knows when and where it’s appropriate to bark. (pages 56, 86-89, 127-128)
The best part about this information is that anyone can do the following and it’s easy!
- fixing any dog behavior problem
- tips and secrets to use in your everyday dog obedience training
- specific commands and tricks to teach your dog
- the best way to select, buy and raise a new puppy or older dog.
- My adult Afghan hound forgot all his house-training when we got a second dog. I didn’t know what to look out for when there is more than one dog in the house! I could have done with the advice (pages 130-131) to keep the peace!
- Does familiarity with dog training matter to children. Yes, it gives them confidence for handling dangerous animals, and make no mistake…teeth that can crunch bones belong to a dangerous animal.
One man visited a farm, and was chased up a tree by the wolf-hound. He was there for several hours before the owners of the farm got home.
A week later, I visited the farm. The wolf-hound came charging out, and I kept walking towards the house so that she would be forced to get out of my way or get trodden on. She got a long way out of reach! When I went to a barbecue there a couple of weeks later, it took more than an hour for me to make friends with her - she had been so impressed with my superiority the first time she met me!
One day I saw a dairyman trying to un-chain a cow after milking her. She was excited because all the other cows had already gone, and she had one and a half foot long sticking out each side of her head. The horns were swinging dangerously near the head of the dairyman. I had never worked with cows as a child, but my experience with dogs led me to analyze the danger, step forward, and release the cow safely.
When you train a dog you soon learn what it can and can’t do. For instance it has only one set of teeth, and you have two hands, two boots, and probably something in your hand to use as a weapon. I analyzed that although the cow had two horns, only the one on the side nearest to me was a threat, and that it couldn’t reach further towards me than the distance between the chain round her neck and the tip of the nearest horn.
This automatic analysis extends to the most dangerous animal (man) and to inanimate things (a frying pan that has caught fire). If your child gets into the habit of working out the limits of danger, it could be vitally important in the future. If she is attacked by a man who is twice her weight, and four times as strong, what are his limits?. His eyes aren’t as strong as her thumbs. His nose isn’t as strong as her teeth. His balance isn’t very secure if she dives between his knees in a sort of rugby tackle, then runs away. His eyes are defenceless if she pretends to throw a handful of sand at him, then really throws it when he opens his eyes again.
Every dangerous animal has many weaknesses. When you train any animal you learn to exploit its weaknesses. That means that training your dog will have far reaching consequences for your whole family.